SCIENCE 



MAYl 



Friday, May 7, 1920 



COlSirSNTS 



Teleplwny and Telegraphy over 

 Open-circuit Bare Wires Imd in the Earth 

 or Sea: Majoe General George O. Squier. 445 



Sesearch in the Psychology of Aviation dur- 

 ing the Tear 1919: Captain Harry M. 

 Johnson 449 



General Biology and the Junior College: Pro- 

 fessors Leonas L. Buelingame and Er- 

 nest G. Martin 452 



Francis C. Phillips: Professor Alexander 

 SiLVEEMAN 455 



Scientific Events: — 

 Bird-handing Work heing taken over by the 

 Biological Survey; The Pacific Coast Di- 

 vision of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science; The Resignation 

 of the Director of the Bureau of Mines; The 

 Besignation of Professor E. L. Nichols 

 fro^n the Tale Vmversity Faculty; The 

 Allegheny Observatory 456 



Scientific Notes and News 459 



University and Educational News 462 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



Singing Sands : Albert R. Ledoux. Modern 

 Interpretation of Differentials: Peofessor 

 Aethue S. Hathaway. Carbon Dioxide and 

 Increased Crop Production: Peofessoe 

 Benjamin Haerow. Structural Blue in 

 Snow : Dr. Jeeome Alexandee 462 



Scientific Books: — 

 Haskell on Graphic Charts: De. E. von 

 Huhn 466 



Special Articles: — 



The Heredity of Susceptibility to a Trans- 

 plantable Sarcoma of the Japanese Waltzing 

 Mouse : De. C C. Little 467 



The American Association of Petroleum Geol- 

 ogists 468 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 



Minutes of the Executive Committee of the 

 Council : Peofessoe Burton E. Livingston. 470 



MSS. intended for publication and booke, etc., intended for 

 review should be Bent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



MULTIPLEX TELEPHONY AND TELEG- 

 RAPHY OVER OPEN-CIRCUIT BARE 

 WIRES LAID IN THE EARTH 

 OR SEAi 

 INTRODUCTION 



The ' ' key iproblem ' ' in the procure- 

 ment of essential Signal Corps supplies 

 in the United States during the World 

 War, curiously enough turned out to be 

 the jirodiuction of the necessary braiding 

 machines for finishing insulated wire. 

 The bare wire itself could be obtained, the 

 rubber insulation could be obtained, even 

 the cotton thread with wliie'h the braiding 

 was made could be obtained, but the nec- 

 essary machinery for braiding the tliread, 

 which finally led us into the intricacies of 

 the procurement of steel, was never any- 

 thing like adequate for the enormous de- 

 mands required in the field. 



The braiding capacity of the entire 

 United States, as of September 1, 1918, 

 was about 8,000 miles of twisted pair in- 

 sulated wire per month, while the require- 

 ments for the American forces alone at 

 that date were about 40,000 miles a month. 

 On October 1, 1918, the Allied Council 

 reached tlie decision that beginning March 

 1, 1919, it would be necessary for the 

 United States to furnish all of this type of 

 wire used by the Allied armies in the field, 

 and the estimated minimum requirements 

 for tills purpose were equivalent to four 

 tianes around the earth a month. To sup- 

 ply this amount of insulated wire would 

 have required cargo space for overseas 



1 Abstract of paper presented to the National 

 Academy of Sciences at the session held at the Na- 

 tional Museum, April 27, 1920. 



